Teammates: Slugger is in ‘middle of greatness’
SAN FRANCISCO — The Yankees have seen it enough to insist they are not overly surprised.
And yet they still seem to be in awe when Aaron Judge does Aaron Judge things, like hitting 14 home runs and 12 doubles in the month of May.
“Appreciate it, because we’re in the middle of greatness,” Anthony Rizzo said Friday night after Judge homered twice against the Giants at Oracle Park, putting the finishing touches on a monster May.
The final damage from the month: In 28 games, Judge hit .371 with a 1.415 OPS, 14 home runs and 12 doubles while drawing 22 walks. Of his 36 hits, 26 went for extra bases, tied with Babe Ruth for the third-most in a calendar month in Yankees history, trailing only Joe DiMaggio (31 in 1937) and Lou Gehrig (29 in 1930).
June didn’t start too bad either. Judge was 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs in a 7-3 win over the Giants on Saturday night.
“You think you’d stop being surprised, but it is impressive what he did,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Twenty-six extrabase hits [in May]? I mean, it’s hard to wrap your brain around that, what he’s doing. He just kind of does his thing. He’s so consistent with who he is as a person, as a player and the way he goes about it. It’s just fun to get to watch it.”
True to his even-keeled nature, Judge has mostly shrugged off his historic month. The furthest he has gone in acknowledging it came Thursday night, when he went so far as to call it a “good month,” quickly following up by adding his goal of trying to repeat it in June.
His teammates have gladly done the gushing for him, though.
“It’s amazing to witness what he’s been able to do because it’s a pretty historic run,” Marcus Stroman said. “I think we take it for granted sometimes.”
Boone recently shared a similar sentiment about not wanting to take Judge for granted just because he is constantly setting the bar higher for himself. After Boone had a front-row seat for Judge’s chase to 62 home runs in 2022, there is little that the captain can do that shocks his manager.
“Anytime he does something that’s a first or unique or whatever adjective you want to put on it, it frankly doesn’t surprise me, just because I know how good he is and when he gets locked in, it’s just different,” Boone said.
Besides the fact that he had the historic month coming off a quiet first few weeks of the season, Judge also did it on the backdrop of a year in which offense is down across the league and other superstars have yet to fully take off.
Among the game’s biggest sluggers who have yet to reach the 14home run, 12-double threshold this season (entering Saturday) — never mind just in the past month? Bryce Harper, Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Rafael Devers, just to name a few.
Meanwhile, Judge joined Albert Belle (14 home runs, 13 doubles in August 1995) as the only players in major league history to hit 14 home runs and 12 doubles in a single calendar month.